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DIY Sea Glass Bottles ~ Fail

I’m looking at a craft fail here my friends. This the tutorial that I re-pinned.

Here are the materials needed according to the tutorial:

Blue & Green Food Coloring ( I used the Neon colors from McCormick just because I like how intense the color is)

School Glue

Dish Liquid

Water

Paint Brush

Glass Jars, Bottles, etc.

And the instructions:

Mix the school glue and water as if you were making homemade mod podge. WHAT? You don’t know how to make your own mod podge? So easy! Just mix 2-3 parts glue to 1 part water.

Add a few drops of blue and green food coloring. Add more blue or green depending on your preference.

Add just a little dish liquid. How much is just a little…well, not too much!

Blend well.

Now, carefully paint the mixture onto the outside of the glass and let it dry. Watch out for being too streaky or leaving drips. Don’t worry, if you mess up – just wash and start over.

The end result should look like this:

See how they are brightly colored, yet have a frosty finish, but are still translucent? And you know what she said about not getting streaks or drips?

Yeah, I couldn’t accomplish that. I bought exactly the same food coloring. I tried mixing glue and water, making a thick version and a more watery version. The more watery version definitely dripped everywhere. But a thick version dripped too, just in slower bigger globs. I tried a few different brushes, from a tiny one to a sponge one and finally settled on a 2″ brush because that got the job done the fastest and was easiest to coat it without lots of brushing (meaning lots of brushmarks). I didn’t mix in much dish liquid, just a tiny bit. I also only used a few drops of food coloring.

From a distance they are ok, and even the photos are alright. But in real life, up close, they don’t look so hot. Not hot enough to say, display on a table or a shelf, or put out during a party and say “look what I did”.

See the drippy mess? But I was hopeful with a nice, even, opaque coverage on the wine bottle.

I had really good coverage on this one too.

Once they dried, I was underwhelmed. The blue is so faint that it just looks like regular glass that has that green tint around the edges. The green is really strong, but up close it is drippy. And this is a pretty normal color for glass anyway, but it isn’t frosty.

See the drips on the green bottle?

I’ve tried this two more times since with real Mod Podge and more food coloring to try and get the blue to show. I tried it with and without the dish liquid. None of those turned out any better, and the brushstroke problem just got worse. So I think I am officially giving up on this one unless someone has a solution. Sad face.

5 thoughts on “DIY Sea Glass Bottles ~ Fail”

Oh boo! I wanted to do this. Maybe only one person in the universe has ever made it work and all the rest of us just keep pinning it! And what you did sounds exactly like the directions I’ve seen. I was just sure it was easy.

yeah, i wasn’t happy with my faux mercury glass either. (more like faux pas mercury glass, wop wop). i might give it another stab sometime by removing most of it with vinegar and spraying again. it was really difficult to get a non-drippy spray from inside the votive/vase, and i didn’t distress and layer enough.

This is so funny!!!! I am pretty crafty and most of my things turn out beautifully. I am on my fourth try to get results that I am pleased with and got ANOTHER epic fail!! I so interesting to me how people post projects like this and make it sound so easy to get a great end result, and then when you do it it’s nothing like it?? I have done about 15 jars or vases at this point, non have come out as I thought they would however, when I put them all together they do look lovely. I’m trying to convince myself that all the runs and flaws add character and interest LOL!!!!! My last pieces are drying, when they are done I will post a pic if I can…… :)